Eagle Boys' Bigger Slice Of Pizzas

AUSTRALIA'S third-biggest pizza chain, Eagle Boys Pizza, increased full-year sales by 21.9 per cent as the company increased the number of stores and eyes further expansion.

(Tuesday, August 19, 2008) - Revenue for the 12 months to the end of June grew to $125 million after the unlisted company opened 51 new stores, the Brisbane-based company said yesterday.

The company last month bought Pizza Haven, Australia's fourth-largest chain, taking control of 35 stores and moving into Sydney and South Australia for the first time.

Eagle Boys now operates about 270 stores and plans to open 100 more in 2008-09, as it competes with rivals Domino's Pizza Enterprises and Pizza Hut, Australia's biggest and second-largest pizza chains. "In the year ahead, we will continue to improve our offering with new pizza toppings, better ingredients and an expanded network of stores," managing director Todd Clayton.

Mr Clayton said same-store sales growth was 13.9 per cent from the year before as the company launched the option of doubling the toppings for $3 and used advertising to highlight how competitors had decreased the size of their pizzas.

Eagle Boys is also expanding its internet-order facility, with 90 per cent of stores expected to be taking online orders by January next year, he said.

The company is majority owned by private equity investor NBC Capital, following a management buy-in by five executives in May last year, and has previously stated it is open to a possible Australian Securities Exchange listing in the future.

Eagle Boys founder Tom Potter, who started the company on the NSW-Victoria border town of Albury in 1987, retains less than 10 per cent and is not involved in operations.

Listed pizza chain Domino's operates 437 stores in Australia and a total of 741 when its networks in New Zealand, France, Belgium and The Netherlands are included.

The company holds the master franchise rights for those countries and Monaco for the Domino's brand, owned by US-based Domino's Pizza, the world's second-biggest chain.

Pizza Hut, the largest pizza chain in the world, operates 325 stores in Australia.

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